In connection with the delivery of some products, and especially food products such as baked goods having a very limited shelf life, frequent deliveries must be made to the same groceries or other retain outlets from the bakeries by the bakery truck. There is often a considerable diversity of products to be delivered by the single bakery delivery truck. Also, frequent deliveries must be made because of the perishability and limited shelf life of the products, and returns of stale goods must be gathered and counted and taken back to the bakery. Because of all of these complications, a considerable time is consumed by the deliveryman, not only in carrying the products into the retail outlet and carrying the returns back out to the truck, but also in recording all of the details of these transactions. The time required for these record keeping activities seriously slows down the process of delivery, tying up both the driver and the equipment. Furthermore, the accuracy of the recordation of these transactions is very important in order to maintain good customer relations and in order to avoid losses.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle mounted mobile business data handling system which conveniently takes care of many of the record keeping problems of deliverymen such as bakery deliverymen, saving deliverymen's time and improving the accuracy of their records.
Another problem in connection with the operation of delivery trucks and in the record keeping function of bakery deliverymen-salesmen is the need for generating an accurate and highly legible written memorandum (invoice or consignment memorandum) to the customer at the time of sale or delivery.
Accordingly, it is another object of the invention to provide a system which includes means for generating a printed memorandum.
Another problem in connection with operations as outlined above is that if a data entry and storage device for gathering and storing data is used for the purpose of realizing the above mentioned objectives, it should be highly portable so that it need not remain in the delivery truck, and can be carried into the customer's premises for the entry of data on those premises. However, under such circumstances, a portable self-contained battery power system may have insufficient power to carry through the entire day of continuous use.
Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to provide means for safely carrying a portable data entry and storage device within a delivery vehicle and for recharging the data device at the same time.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the accompanying drawings.